U.S. 29 bypass plans get hard look

Relief and concerns as residents weigh options

Posted: Friday, July 31, 2009

By Merritt Melancon

DANIELSVILLE - Madison County residents want to see if some simple changes to U.S. Highway 29 can ease congestion before state officials put into play their long-range plan to build a bypass around Danielsville.

Construction of the bypass is years off since the Department of Transportation doesn't have funding for the project, but a couple of turning lanes could solve most traffic gripes immediately, several locals said at a public information meeting Thursday.

"I think there are a lot of deaths that could have been prevented over the years if we would have had a bypass ... ," said Patty Brantley. "But you could take (the cost of) five miles of this project, going through virgin land here, and you could pave every road in this county and put in a lot of turning lanes."

The latter options would make the county's roads safe much more quickly, she said.

The DOT has been planning a bypass around Danielsville's narrow, curvy and busy stretch of U.S. Highway 29 since 1999. When the first route for the bypass was proposed a decade ago, more than 300 Madison Countians showed up at a public information meeting to protest.

While the 250 people who turned out for Thursday's meeting were anxious, they weren't angry. DOT officials designed four possible routes, and residents had different opinions about which route is best, but agreed they are glad the 10-year-old plan is off the table.

"I hope they moved that thing because I've been at my place for 33 years," joked Robert Couch. "A man can collect a lot of junk in that time."

Couch's home stands in the path of the earlier design, so he was happy to learn that the route has changed.

Still many of the people at Thursday's meeting will be affected by one of the four possible routes.

"I've lived there for 40-plus years in the same location, and I don't think we need a bypass," said Shirley McClure, who lives on a section of U.S. 29 that would be widened under all of the routes.

"Even if they put it miles away from my house - I still don't think we need it," she said.

The road's just not that congested, said her husband, Bill McClure.

"You can run 55 miles per hour all the way to Athens," he said.

The need for the bypass is based on 20-year traffic projections, said Russell McMurry, DOT's district engineer for Northeast Georgia. Right now, about 14,000 vehicles a day travel along U.S. 29 through Madison County, but that number will grow to about 30,000 by 2030, he said.

"I hate that it cuts through anybody's property," said Chasity Brock, who would lose part of her front yard to one of the proposed routes. "But this area is growing. By the time they get started on it, we will need it."

Like many others, Brock prefers the proposed southeastern route, which would allow access to the county's elementary, middle and high schools without funnelling school traffic through downtown Danielsville, she said.

Her husband Scott Brock disagreed.

There's just no route through the county that the bypass could take without uprooting someone's home or livelihood, he said.

People in Madison County stay in their houses and on their land for a long time, sometimes generations, he said.

The highway will cut family farms in pieces, some said.

"It'll take too many livelihoods, and take everything that they've built up over the years so they have something to give their kids," said Scott Turner. "It's like, 'Son, we're giving you 50 acres. Thirty acres is over here and your other 20 is way over there.' "

Most of the county residents at the meeting were comforted by the thought that whatever route the bypass takes, it most probably won't be built for a decade. DOT won't have money for right-of-way acquisition or construction before 2013.